Pennsylvania Senate Democratic hopeful John Fetterman and his Republican rival Dr. Mehmet Oz got here out of the gate swinging Tuesday night of their only debate just two weeks before Election Day.
Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, in his opening statement said that if Oz “is on TV, he’s lying,” calling it “the Oz rule.”
Oz hit back, calling Fetterman “extreme” and accusing him of being soft on crime.
The Democrat, who’s recovering from a stroke he suffered in May, appeared to struggle along with his diction throughout the controversy. He acknowledged his difficult recovery initially and end of the event, saying his campaign is “all about fighting for anyone in Pennsylvania that ever got knocked down and needed to get back up again.”
The race to clinch the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey is widely viewed as one of the necessary of the midterms cycle.
Democrats see the competition in the important thing swing state, where President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump in 2020, as one among their best possibilities to flip a Republican-held seat and cling to their razor-thin Senate majority. Republicans view Toomey’s seat as a must-win piece of their plan to retake control of the upper chamber of Congress.
Of their hourlong debate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the candidates fielded questions on abortion rights, raising the minimum wage, gun reform and fracking within the Keystone State.
Fetterman reiterated his support for the framework established by Roe v. Wade, the longstanding abortion precedent that was struck down by the Supreme Court over the summer.
Oz said wants decisions on abortion left to “women, doctors, [and] local political leaders,” adding that states should determine the problem for themselves.
Fetterman said he has “at all times” supported fracking, and struggled to elucidate an apparent contradiction when a moderator noted he had previously said he “never” supported fracking.
They were also grilled on their records and past positions. Oz defended questions on whether he promoted potentially unsafe or unproven treatments on his show, saying he “provided high-quality information that empowered people.” Fetterman, said his community “all understood what happened” in response to a matter a couple of 2013 incident when, because the mayor of Braddock, he brandished a shotgun on a Black jogger.
Each candidate accused the opposite of lying, and spared no punches when attacking their opponent’s personal lives. Fetterman repeatedly knocked Oz for owning quite a few properties outside of Pennsylvania, while Oz accused Fetterman of failing to pay taxes.
The controversy got here as Oz, the celebrity doctor endorsed by Trump, has closed his polling deficit with Fetterman in the ultimate weeks of the race.
The 2 candidates now look like in a virtual dead heat, in accordance with averages of recent polls compiled by RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight.
Oz’s gains got here as Fetterman recovered from a debilitating stroke in May that took him off the campaign trail for 3 months.
The Oz campaign, aided by tens of tens of millions of dollars from Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s PAC, has bombarded Fetterman with ads accusing him of being soft on crime and too far left for Pennsylvania. Earlier Tuesday, two other GOP groups linked to that PAC poured a further $6.2 million into ads that can run in Pennsylvania through Election Day.
Fetterman’s campaign has blasted Oz, a wealthy TV star, as an out-of-touch carpetbagger from Recent Jersey who got wealthy by promoting sometimes-dubious health information to his audiences.
Oz’s campaign has also launched attacks on Fetterman’s health, openly questioning whether he’s physically fit for office. Fetterman’s primary care physician wrote last week that the candidate “has no work restrictions and might work full duty in public office,” while noting he’s experiencing lingering auditory processing issues.
Fetterman in recent interviews has used a closed-captioning system as a way to read live transcriptions of questions as they’re asked of him. His campaign warned Monday that using closed-captioning in the course of the debate may lead to some awkward pauses and a few transcription errors.
